Should Gavin Williamson resign as a career move?

Amid all the puzzlement and recrimination about why the government got into this mess about A-level and GCSE results, one factor has been missed — the effect of Covid-19. I do not mean the obvious fact that none of this would have happened without the disease. I mean the less obvious one that our governmental and political system works very badly without the close human contact which Covid forbids. In normal times, MPs meet their constituents. Ministers meet fellow MPs in the Members’ Lobby and hear from them about constituents’ worries, such as their children losing university places. In Whitehall corridors, civil servants bump into one another and notice upcoming problems. And in cabinet — or, more likely, on its margins — senior ministers can sense trouble brewing. In the absence of such informalities, 10 Downing Street turns in on itself. Communication stops. The quango machine rolls on unchecked, until disaster strikes. The late Duke of Norfolk famously declared that the problem with the ‘rhythm method’ of birth control was that ‘it doesn’t bloody work’. The same can be said, in government, of the algorithm method.

People have called for Gavin Williamson’s resignation over the debacle. This is not an issue where he must, in honour, resign; but should he do so as a career move? Compare two chancellors of the exchequer. The first, Jim Callaghan, took responsibility as soon as the pound was devalued in 1967, and resigned. He was immediately made home secretary. Nine years later, he became prime minister. The second, Norman Lamont, did not resign after the devaluation caused by Britain falling out of the ERM in September 1992. Consequently he was undermined in the post and John Major prised him out of the Treasury in May the following year, never to hold office again. Some friends of Mr Williamson say that if he stays, he will be dragged down.